Starting a superhero game
Want to start a game in aberrant. Not as grim and dark.
Let me know if anyone is interested. Ill post some info here. So far it seems well be playing on friday
This game uses the storyteller (ST) system, specifically the aberrant book, to run a superhero-themed game. don´t worry, the system itself is pretty easy to understand.
We are playing in Alessia, a small fictional country in between Italy and Switzerland, in the year 2120. Alessia is a city state with nearly no valleys or farming land, located in the mountains.
With little natural resources, the state survives by making accurate business decisions and being a big player in the international markets, thanks to a intensive educational and carefully engineered society, envisioned by Alessia´s royal family in the somewhere in the 2040´s, nearly 80 years ago.
Education is considered a prime virtue in the country, and most of the adventures revolve around high school or university, depending on the age of the player characters.
* What sort of superhero are we talking about, in this game?
A nova is a human being that has, for whatever reason (was born with it, was exposed to powerful quantum energies through another nova, bombarded by radiation, etc) developed a new node in the front of his or her brain, called the Mandarin-Rashoud node, or MR node for short.
The MR node allows a human to evolve from Homo sapiens sapiens to homo sapiens novus, a person who can manipulate the quantum forces of the universe.
However, the human mind is ill-equipped to fully grasp quantum, and so we shape it to conform to easier-to-grasp concepts, like fire.
A fire manipulator, for example, can use the "force field" power, by creating a barrier of flame that burns bullets out of the air, and deflects blows through heat. He can fly thanks to fire, and maybe turn himself into living flames. He cant however use sonic attacks or shoot pheromones out of his mouth. He handles fire. His powers are an extension of what he thinks fire could do, whether it could really do it or not.
Thus, his power behaves and acts exactly how he thinks fire should act. It can set things on fire, warm things, burn things, and it can be useless if hes underwater or in the vacuum of space where there is no oxygen, for example.
* The origin
In the original aberrant book, the nova began "erupting" into the world after a experimental space station blew up in high orbit, bathing the world with experimental radiation. That´s fine, we are keeping that origin, but assuming it happened somewhere in the earlier century, so by now novas are a common part of life. This is not the x-men, after all.
However, when you gain the power to handle more and more quantum, buy powers at half exp price, or both a quantum power, you begin accumulating taint, which turns you into a inhuman creature, either too monstrous, or too perfect, and you begin intimidating and terrorizing people with your mere presence. That sort of character would, indeed, see some obvious persecution,
The core book is here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ygj5tmuedwyThe player´s guide is here, it includes merits and flaws to help you customize your character, as well as some extra abilities:
http://www.mediafire.com/?tum2mzdtytdThe game
Novas are expected to help during emergencies, and to cooperate with local law enforcement wherever they go. Unless you have a secret identity, expect police to call you to a crime scene if you have super senses or can see backwards in time to see the culprit of a crime, or to try and help with rescue efforts after a disaster, or to help them stop a criminal with nova abilities.
Thus, you can be a student, a restaurant owner, or a business man, and still get entwined with adventure on a near daily basis.